The Aberfan Disaster | A Short Documentary | Fascinating Horror
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- Опубликовано: 26 окт 2020
- "On the 21st of October 1966 workers arriving at the site of a coal mine near the village of Aberfan in Wales discovered that one of several spoil heaps on site had shifted during the night..."
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The only thing more horrific than the disaster itself, is the actual aftermath. Having to prove you were close with your child to warrant any compensation? Taking years to remove the rest of the spoil heaps despite so many people dying? Shameful.
Is it worse than claim compensation you are not entitled to? They're prosecutions going on for those who claimed compensation as victims of the Grenfell Tower fire when they didn't live there or had been in the building.
@@neiloflongbeck5705 we aren’t talking about proving they were there or were affected. They had to prove how CLOSE they were with their child.
@@Theyrecomingtogetyoubarbara which would be considered appropriate today if dealing with a parent that does not habitually reside with the child, in line with deeds of the charitable trust set up for the victims and families of those affected by the disaster.
@RavnDream the killers of James Bulger were children and were in need of help rather than retribution. They were jailed until they became adults. At their trial they were sentenced to be detained at Her Majesty's Pleasure (ie indefinitely). In 2001 the Parole Board decided that they were to be released on lifelong licence. One of them (Venables) has been jailed twice for subsequent offences, the other (Thompson) hasn't put a foot wrong, showing that he has learnt his lesson.
@RavnDream National Coal Board? There's so much buruecratic bullshit that the real person responsible- the person who opened the mine, gets away with it everytime.
The pitiful amount of compensation and the comment about working-collar families not being able to handle a larger amount of money is a horrific case of classism.
*capitalism
@UpNorth never let facts get in the way of a good communist rant from a child who's never had the misfortune of living under state rule.
@@buckodonnghaile4309 I'm descended from a long line of people who lived under both communist and fascist dictators. Absolutely nightmarish stuff. I think, whether a government actively acknowledges it or not, every country has a class system and every class bullies the one beneath it.
@wargent99 lol, so you do the very thing you condemn in others. The typical leftist hypocrite. However, you just may be saying this as sarcasm.
@@frankvalentich5410 While that’s true to a certain extent, once you get down to the actual poor (not the ones that just think it but aren’t), people commiserate together.
After you've heard enough of these disaster stories, you start to realize the real horror lies in the fact that the people responsible for causing them are almost never held accountable nor face consequences that are proportional to the suffering of the victims.
You see it all the time even today with the number of lies spewed by our institutions that lead to violence. The highest in power suffer no consequences
Fake monsters exist in fairytales and horror stories. Real monsters are human.
as long as they control the economy thats how the world will continue to go
Proportionate to the suffering NOT Proportional to the suffering.
It is great that you are able to concentrate on the most important concepts
From Aberfan to Grenfell, one thing hasn’t changed - never underestimate the ability of the English aristocracy to treat working class people in the UK like dogs.
I see what you mean my friend, unbelievable, all those souls rest in peace🙏😪
aristocracy? Long gone. The NCB is a socialist rats' nest.
Why would you treat dogs like that
Alf Robens, "was an English trade unionist, Labour politician and industrialist", made a life peer in 1961, after he was appointed chairman of the NCB. He wasn't an aristocrat.
@@cdeford dont think he was poor though, or gave a shit about workers.
"You want compensation? You can't handle the compensation."
Best comment award goes to you⭐
You know those people would just blow that money on food and rent.
@@russlehman2070
Yeah, specially considering that the main wage earner would never come through the door again with a pay packet in his hand, and who’s going to pay for the burial of my two kids.
It's so weird that this was an actual legal argument that worked
Lol, well done.
I dunno which is more terrifying, the accident or the heartlessness displayed by every single bureaucrat involved in this disaster.
It's like the people never got out of the serfdom mentality. Peasants and lords all over.
@wargent99 _Those words reflect poorly of you._
@wargent99 Stop bringing your politics into a disaster that killed hundreds of small children. This is not the platform to voice your political opinions. People involved in some way, shape or form will watch this and you are being highly offensive.
You should remove your unwarranted and uncalled for comments out of respect for all those involved.
@wargent99 just like us here with Trump.
@wargent99 always throwing around serious words like racist and misogynistic in a most glib manner. You forgot xenophobic and fascist to top off your list of insults.
Late stage ✨C A P I T A L I S M✨
5:57 "One journalist for example reportedly asked a child if they would please cry on camera for their dead sibling, as it would make good TV." Good to see journalism hasn't changed in 60 years.
A quote from a news article about the Aberfan episode of The Crown "Those relatives and neighbours who took up an invitation from the producers to appear as extras in some scenes were also offered counselling for the first time in 53 years. And there will be more to come. “We had a therapist to help all the people who were recreating such a horrific scene,” said producer Oona O Beirn. “People who live there are still traumatised, of course, and we found they’d never been offered help before. Now we are trying to arrange more.”"
More care shown to these still grieving people by some tv producers than their own governments
So they used people who had suffered and should be applauded for offering them counseling for reliving a nightmare for entertainment purposes?
@@suzannekirkwood6392I mean, those people are adults who were given a choice to take part and chose to do so. And for that they were given standard payment, but also something that they were denied by those in charge before during and after the disaster; respect and care.
Anyone who believes governments care about their people is blind to the truth
I just watched this episode and was in a perverse way excited that I had heard of this tragic accident here first and also that they were actually talking about it. I’m glad to know that they are getting therapy now. Better late than never, yeah?
@@MsVanorak what does that even mean?
NCB: Are we the monsters? No, it's all those folks who had no choice but to live in the shadow of our poorly constructed death hills.
Lol
Yes the NCB are the monsters they knew from the 1940’s slippage that it could happen again in the future but they did not care.
@wargent99 wow you have issues
@wargent99 Seriously, you need help. What part of this drivel you are spewing has anything to do with this video?
A video about a tragedy where hundreds of children died.... or did you miss that part?
@wargent99 oh look, its a wild typical radical leftist who thinks they're better than everyone else
Pull your head out of your rear, bet you've never worked a day in your life, else you would realize that you can't just "make something of yourself."
Brexit was the best thing Britain ever did, stay salty.
It’s so nice to know that the value of your children is directly tied to your class. The amount of classism is utterly disgusting but what would expect from a company that showed such incompetence that it ignored the concerns of the people living in the village. Why care about your workers when they’re only there to make you money? Disgusting. This was an utterly preventable tragedy.
@wargent99 Brexit was good, grow up
Found the Marxist
Well, the National Coal Board was not a private company IIRC, but it seems to have been run by the same evil upperclass twats currently fucking up Britain today.
And you know it wouldve been a different story if the children were from the rich people
The NCB was a nationalised concern so pure profit should never have been the overriding factor, when they were nationalised they were (like the railways) bought from their owners, and not at rock bottom prices either, the mine workers under nationalisation saw a significant benefit in conditions, unfortunately most off those running the mines had worked for the previous owners, so tended to have that attitude as well, (we also hadn't long come out from a war where coal a any cost was an accepted ethos), factor in the mindset of most politicians at the time and the stage was set for a most shameful display off callous behavior, I would like to think we have moved on but I'm not so sure. As a school child I was aware of the disaster ( our school raised funds to help), but never found out about the brutal callousness until seeing this video, even a beast in the wild nurtures and cares for its young, without having to prove anything!.
That “having to prove you were close with your child” thing made me physically ill. What horrendous monster would make that a rule? I cannot stand humanity.
i cant understand why any parent caved the face of those assholed
If you can't stand humanity, nothing about this should bother you.
@@Prismatic_Truth What a fucked up thing to say. Go away.
I think it's a polite way of saying that if you'd abandoned your kids you couldn't make a claim. Just like today back then there were mothers and fathers who had kids but didn't raise them. Or one parent left leaving the other to raise the kids.
Those parents had to prove more than the incompetent and ignorant owner and operators of the mine disasters cause.
“Unable to handle a larger amount of compensation” ... that quote makes me feel sick!
So does taking money from the relief fund! Thats disgusting!
This whole incident is disgusting and highlights how poorly the working class people were treated in this situation. From the media asking a child to cry for its dead sibling on TV, to not giving compensation unless families were close to their children, to refusing a higher amount of compensation because 'working class people couldn't handle a large amount of money', to them not listening to complains of the locals and threatening to take away their jobs if they don't hush. Disgusting, so now these families, who often live pay check to pay check, have to grieve, take time off work for trauma, pay for a funeral and possible damage to their home 'can't handle more money'. And to put the cherry on the cake, they didn't even move the other slag deposits as 'they were safe'. Even thought they'd be sat at the top of the hill, reminding everyone everyday of the disaster of what had occurred. I just feel for them poor families.
@wargent99 That was more than 50 years later. What on earth does brexit have to do with this?
@@kl2894 Absolutely nothing. Some people actively pick the worst times to air their random grievances, like this individual.
The media is much the same today, “if it bleed, it leads.” SAD😔😢
And people think classism isn't real.
@wargent99 Actually, Wales only had a Brexit-majority because of English people living in Wales.
As soon as we got to the bureaucracy bit I think I said, "Oh my GOD" and "Are you KIDDING ME?" out loud at least 5 times. In particular the bit where they said they wouldn't give them more funds because "they wouldn't know how to handle that much money" and the bit where they said they wanted to make sure the parents were "close" with their children. These people really weren't considered "human" by these assholes, were they??? my gosh...
That's standard for the British government in them days. They considered the poor and working classes to be somehow subhuman. The English upper classes had the kind of snobbery that literally killed their countrymen, and especially if those countrymen weren't English.
Oh my gosh same! My jaw is still on the floor.
The lower/middle class never are considered human by the elite. Yet we live in a time of celebrity/politician worship unlike anything our society has ever seen. Humans deserve whatever they get because they are too stupid to realize that their lives are being played like a game by the people in power. And our people keep giving them that power. It is sickening and disappointing.
@@mushypeasplease8872 it’s still standard in the UK today for Christ sake. Look at the stories of the kids who are condemned to die by the NHS even when other countries offer free medical to the child and family. Fuck the UK
Yidris are you taking about the brain dead kid who was going to die regardless of what was done and it was considered cruel to move him?
My grandfather and great uncle were part of many local miners that volunteered to help dig for the children. 2 things neither talked about was this and their war experiences in WW2 . A very tough generation
My uncle was also one of the volunteers, and also doesn't speak much about it. The only thing I ever heard about his experience was that they issued the volunteers study boots, and a free pair of boots was a big deal for a 19 year old from the valleys.
I was a youngster at school on the south coast when this happened and I was very struck by the brave and relentless rescue efforts. I have often wondered if this was an unconscious factor in my decision to move north and study to become a mining engineer, spending my whole career down the pit.
It was harrowing beyond description for all concerned.
I feel proud that my father donated 2 weeks wages to the disaster fund ,although it was not a lot to us these days , it was a heck of of lot back then . His only comments in the card he gave were " I wish it were not needed ,& I feel for the families and relations , God bless , Ronald "
My aunt was a nurse in the UK at the time and was deployed to this tragedy to dig out the bodies of the children in the school. It messed her up. She stopped being a nurse as soon as she was done.
She died a few months ago and before her death mentioned to my mom how that event continued to bother her.
How they treated the families and volunteers was cruel.
That's sad .. It was such a tragic event for all involved ..
That must have been really hard to deal with.. sorry to hear about you aunt
bless her and may she rest in peace
Like so much grist for the mill. :(
Too often the effects of such tragedies on Search & Rescue and medical personnel is overlooked or forgotten very quickly as society rushes to bury bad memories. The 9/11 first responders are another excellent example, heros who have been treated disgracefully by their elected representatives.
I'm sorry that your Aunt had to bear witness to this event and suffered because of it. May she be at peace.
Deepest Condolences to you for your aunt. 💙
Could you look into the Cairngorms tragedy? A group of Edinburgh school children froze to death on a mountain top regarded as the most dangerous in the UK and most of their parents had no idea they were even there. Its crazy and I think its a good fit for your channel
Quite a few people recommended it too. I hope he does a video on it. I love his voice lol
Seconded, I was wanting to suggest this tragedy but I forgot the name of it (and thought it took place in Utah for some reason.)
@sayvar44 Scotland isn't a joke for sure mate, hypothermia is very real here, sure it ain't like the artic but it can catch you.
@sayvar44 I've lived in Phoenix, AZ with 123'f days and Chicago, IL with -22'f. A tornado caused massive damage near my house in Yorkville, IL and that storm system flooded my basement. The fires in Vacaville, CA tried to suffocate me, the mold from a roof leak in LA, CA made both myself and my cat sick until I threatened to sue and moved state again. Then there was a 6.4 magnitude earthquake in June 2019 in Las Vegas, NV. I've lived everywhere and all I have left to worry about is the Yellowstone Super Volcano or contracting an STD. I've done and survived everything else. 😂🤕🤪
@sayvar44 we once got -18C indicated at least.
That was a ridiculously cold year, totally freak winter.
It's strange hearing about the Aberfan Disaster from non-Welsh people. I wasn't alive to experience it, but my Nan lived in Aberfan for years (she was a counciller for a local school, even met the Queen a few years ago on one of the disasters anniversaries), and I visited her house every week. I remember walking to the memorial garden with my cousin on the way to the park every week - we were too young to actually understand what the garden was for. I don't know a single Welsh person who doesn't know about the disaster, or how terribly the families of the victims were treated. It's nice to have more attention brought to it.
i now live in aberfan and remember my mum helping ,the childrens cemetry is a very sombre sad ,quiet place to be in x
I’m so sorry, it’s hard timing to live in aberfan, I live next to it, wales. Do u know coal mines? learning about it the disaster in Senghenydd bla bla bla.
“You are not entitled because you didn’t love your dead kid enough”. Wtf....
My grandfather worked in a smelting works in Swansea at the time, they all went up to Aberfan as volunteers to help dig out the bodies, he said it was like a nothing he’d ever seen, the sounds and smells and the things he saw haunted him for the rest of his life. We’ve visited there many times to pay respects and just that is haunting enough.
Big respect to your Grandfather, doing his best to help in a truly awful situation.
@@nwk-wt3ty thanks John, he would have really appreciated that, the tragedy shook him for the rest of his life after, can’t even imagine how the families were affected. Have a very safe and Merry Christmas and stay safe. Thank you.
I worked with a guy who was a young soldier when Lockerbie happened and he and his squaddies were tasked with retrieving body parts, he said the locals had put towels over anything they had found and his job was to move the towels and bag and label what was under them. He was only there for a few hours but it changed his life more than any other event and he hated people who left towels lying on benches instead of putting them away.
@@HooverLux same to you bud
My grandfather went to Aberfan to help too. He was a fireman stationed in Pembrokeshire that came to Aberfan to help uncover the bodies. My dad said he could never talk about it because it was so horrific :(
There is a well known story about this incident here in Wales. The morning that it happened, an 8yr old girl called Beryl Evans came down to breakfast and told her mother "I had a dream last night about my school. I dreamed it wasn't there anymore. Something black was on it" and off she went to school.. She was among the dead.
I was wondering if this was the same story!
@@esteemedmortal5917 yes, it's quite well known here in Wales, and makes the whole thing even more terrifying.. She actually seen it coming bless her😔
Her poor mom probably lived with the guilt not even realizing something like that.
Seems like ive read or seen about that story, Thanks for sharing.
Damn, that’s some Final Destination shit right there
I remember this. I was only little, living in a small N Welsh community, lived in a world *filled* with big strong Uncles who were hard working and seemed to be able to do everything. I was scared because I knew something terrible had happened, something enormous. Because every big strong man around me was crying, I was used to women crying - but never the men. Then everyone was watching the news, talking about it and they were so angry, raging. I grew up knowing about how businesses would gobble up people like me if they could, to keep more profits. How they'll wriggle, argue, threaten, bring legal action, use the police - to get out of any level of responsibility for the people they chew up and spit out.
And so it continues to this very day with the Kung flu and everything associated with that. Planet Earth is just a huge corrupt ball floating in the ether.
@@GBPaddling Earth isn't corrupt in that sense. It's just us.
@@littlewoodimp most of them ,yes however not all of us friend.
My mum lived in South Wales as a child and visited Aberfan on numerous occasions. She says it was eerie even years afterwards because there was a near complete absence of young children in the village. Heartbreakingly surreal.
i now live in aberfan and the only been to the cemetry once it has an awful feel ,quiet and you just fill up with emotions for no reason
Imagine going down the chippy to get your kids death certificate
@@ceesan5605 that’s funny?
@@magicallyme96 yeah
It is darkly hilarious
@@magicallyme96 dark humor is still humor
A fish shop is not a chippy.
Who puts the waste mountains on a wet hillside RIGHT ABOVE the town? Drive the stuff a mile away, so if it slides, you dont kill your employees kids. Also.... to hell with every person wearing a suit involved in this story.
To hell with people who didn't feel any guilt or remorse. There had to be at least one worker who felt horrible about it. I'd quit after that, I'm not gonna work for scumbags, no matter how much I need the money.
@@greenapple9477
Sadly, if you didn’t work, you starved in those days. Work was also very hard to find, it was a Labour government in its second term under Harold Wilson, and the country was run like shite... and it only got worse as time went on.
Who does that? People who know they can cause this kind of death with no consequences. Corporate power that has only grown exponentially since that time. Also I love how the taxpayer ends up paying the compensation as well.
Even simpler - put it below the fucking town
@@greenapple9477 lol. You either grew up rich or are on welfare. If you didnt work your family didn't eat... This was a mining town.....
My uncle Ali helped here. He was never the same after it poor man.
RIP Alistair, we miss you ❤️
🙏❤️
The number of children lost in this tragedy is unreal. This is one of the most heartbreaking and infuriating stories I've ever heard.
I can't fathom being responsible for the death of over a hundred children and not being so consumed with guilt that youd do anything to try to make it right. They were small kids, where were these monsters empathy?
Most politicians and bureaucrats are sociopaths.
Small working class Welsh kids. That’s the English upper class for you, the same that refuse to carry on providing free school meals at half term because it would create dependency.
Empathy? From a bureaucrat? Better to expect the Sun to stand still in the Heavens. Besides, the was 1966 UK. There would questions in the House and some strongly worded letters to the Times but otherwise, no one had any reason to care.
It comforting to know that these monsters are burning in the VIP lounge of Hell
@@annafdd Why should kids get free schools meals at half term?
want to take a moment to acknowledge how respectfully this channel tells the stories. most channels are like: 7 YEAR OLD DECAPITATED??! FULL STORY
I appreciate how every video on this channel is told in a documentary type format, focused on telling the stories of victims and doing them justice without sensationalizing their suffering. that's something that's becoming more rare.
thank you for your respect towards these stories and the people who experienced them ❤️
yup, most channels would make the death count of a disaster the main focus of a title
It doesn't help too much that certain American accents just grate on my ears, but I find FH's calm and respectful delivery of the facts and acknowledgement of the victims to be the best among the YT disaster channels. Pretty regular uploads too!
@@sixstringedthing He is clearly British.
@@BeersAndBeatsPDX Missed my point mate, which was: regardless of the fact that he's British and I prefer his accent to many Americans, in my opinion his respectful handling of this sensitive subject matter is the best on youtube.
The channel bedtime stories is terrible about this. They sensationalize people's deaths as being caused by UFOs and then write it off at the end of EVERY episode by saying "may their souls forever rest in peace".
I live a couple hours away from the disaster, our school has a minute of silence every year on the day it happened at the time it hit the school, its such a touching moment and its terrifying to think about how the kids were having a normal morning and werent expecting that at all.
My Grandad, the day this happened, drove down from Hereford with a spade and helped dig out survivors.
Absolutely disgusting. Those poor innocent babies, I can’t even imagine the feeling of loss and helplessness of the parents.
And then you have to prove you were "close" to your child. Prove your love.
Listening to a government flunky asking you to "Show me photograph albums of happy baby bouncing around. Show little leauge baseball games. Show ballerina dances. And then be denied. Nope not good enou. And be told "you poor folk would not know how to handle more compensation here take 50 pounds and go buy a mutton chop and a beer. Go on get." Absolute disgusting government.
@@SWIFTO_SCYTHE RIGHT? What an absolute dog shit in history, that one.
We learnt about this in A-level geography, some the the pictures they showed us of people digging for their kids were absolutely terrifying. Can tell you did thorough research though kudos.
Slag heaps are no god damn joke. They are terrifying! I remember learning this as well.
I live in Merthyr, just up the road from Aberfan. We learned about this in school. I drive through whats left of the landslide every day, but most people driving along probably don't realise why the grass is a different colour at the side of the road. This is one of the best docs I've seen about this
This was an episode of a fantastic disaster-series on PBS in the 1970s called "When Havoc Struck." The name of the episode was, "The Children of Aberfan," and it was a departure from the show's usual formula of touring us through multiple examples of the same kind of accident or natural disaster. It was *extremely* well done.
I wish there was some other thing my hometown was famous for. The disaster alone will probably never fade to memory but the way we were treated after will never be forgotten.
Dan, I imagine the inhabitants of Soham have similar feelings - they'd want their town to be known for something other than the murder of two children.
@@simongleaden2864 It'd have to be something pretty big to overshadow a disaster. Dunblane has given the world a supermodel and a tennis world champion but it's still remembered as the place where a disgruntled man shot 17 toddlers.
And it shouldn't be forgotten !
The world should never forget what happened to your people and especially never forget the way they were treated afterward. Fortunately, the Welsh are a hardy lot, you need to be.
Love how NCB didn’t want to overburden the simpletons with too large of a compensation. ‘They just would know what to do with that much money’.
Might I ask, why would you put massive piles of debris uphill from a residential area? That seems like a bad idea from the start.
Cheaper than having it moved to another location of course.
I was 10 when this happened and even at a young age, it shocked me deeply. Seeing the miners digging furiously in the spoil and the women of the village passing rocks to each other with their bare hands while wearing the raincoat and headscarf just as my Mum wore. It still brings tears to my eyes. They were children the same age, and younger than me. I have had a long life, they had nothing. I have always wanted to go to pay my respects but have not wanted to intrude into their grief. Such a trajedy made worse by the NCB.
Something else that has stayed with me was that one of the teachers who died with his pupils was found with five dead children cradled in his arms. He tried to protect them to the very end. RIP Mr Beynon.
this disaster was covered on The Crown tv show, with as much sensitivity as humanly possible for the survivors. they did not film in the village itself, but in another coal town the valley over. they had therapists on site when they talked with survivors about the disaster, and also when they screened that episode for the town ahead of release - for some, it was the very first time they had spoken to *any* mental health professional since the disaster took place, much to the shock and horror of the production staff. they incorporated as much detail as they could from survivor testimony into the episode, and justified every single deviation - of which there were few. the choir heard during the funeral scene, is formed from the survivors, so their literal voices are present in the episode.
what isn't mentioned here, is that many of the miners who took over the rescue efforts, were parents of the children present in the destroyed school. and that they were beaten to the scene by the mothers who had just dropped their darlings off at the gates - as school had only just started when the disaster happened - who were clawing at the slurry with their bare hands. fully half the children in the village died, and no family was left whole.
This video and all the comments did not affect me like your comment did. I am a mother of two children and just imagined myself scraping away at the gunk where my children were buried and began crying. May God be with those families forever.
Christ that must have been bloody terrifying. For some reason I feel for whomever was in those first two cottages. Just having your morning tea and then...
My friend from Wales told me about this disaster. Many people were mortified after the rescue attempts at that school. Horrific
I just watched a documentary on it, apparently in one of the farm houses it was a grandmother and 2 young children.
They were some of the luckier deaths IMO......died very fast,I imagine some Victims of this a Tragedy were still alive but Buried underneath Tons of Earth and unable to move or breath in their final moments IF they survived the Impact of the wave...........truly saddening
@@bjornthefellhanded5655 This was my instant reaction too...
I'd rather be smashed flat by the fast moving wave than trapped/crushed/buried alive as it comes to a halt on top of me.
There's few worse things I can think of apart from being burned alive... *shudder*
The aftermath of classism, dismissiveness and downright loathing the ruling class showed to those affected should never be forgotten in Britain
I'm from Wales, please can you do the Senghenydd mining disaster. Incredible story their bodies are still underneath that active town.
Yes!! Another welsh person :)
@@flyingmintbunny1286 I live in Caerphilly, South Wales
Grenfell tower is Aberfan today .same horrible atitude to working people its the same cover up in action
I was just about to point that out too. Absolutely appalling
Very true, but are you saying Grenfell was the fault of the unemployed? Lol. Sorry it just didn't make sense in the context as written as builders, councillors etc are workers alike. It's more a mix of negligence and/or greed to save money, which of course is absolutely shameful.
@@commonsenseprevails6663 The accident was caused for the same reasons- the head honcho was negligent to save money. In Aberfan a tip killed so many that the bosses seemed to have thought were within parameters and people would be fine so anyone that complained was threatened with their job, as a cleanup would be expensive and the other slips didn't hurt anyone. Grenfell thought they'd be fine and didn't need to listen to the companies doing a renovation over what materials should be fire proof. Both were due to the actions of those in charge, and both were or are trying to be argued away.
Exactly. English class prejudice against workers.
your damn right , its always the people who suffer while the rich exploit a bad situation , look at the millions being made out of covid.....
This is a brilliantly done documentary covering the awful tragedy that was the NCB disaster at Aberfan, kudos to you for that. I am Welsh, and know of this tragedy from old. For those reading this across the world, something has been mentioned in comments here, that is very much worth mentioning again. Whilst nowhere near as prevalent nowadays, back 30/40/50 years ago, there was inherent racism from central government in England, and from many people who were not Welsh, towards anyone and anything that in fact, was Welsh. As an example, Welsh valleys were intentionally flooded, people lost not just their homes, but their towns, to cater for and make way for the supply of water to English towns. This is just one example, there are many more similarly disgraceful events from the past. This is why the govt at the time treated the whole event as an inconvenience to them, rather than the dreadful tragedy that it was. For those reading this from outside the UK, yes... it sounds unbelievable doesn't it? but this is what it was like in the UK if you were Welsh. It's much more of a friendly rivalry now, and majorly speaking - very good humoured to boot, but as has been said, sadly this does indeed still exist today and those who deny this does still happen, are quite likely not Welsh. Check out history if you're interested in finding out more. Apologies for the long reply. Love to all.
So not much different than how they treated the Irish? Yikes
You think the English Government cared for their own people? Oh man.
It took hundreds of Northumbrian miners from Jarrow, South Shields, Boldon, Durham and other places just to get better way for their work by marching down to London while the Government was trying to get folk to not help them in terms of food, clothes, a place to stay and so on but people did it anyway. The North of England has been treated badly for over a 100 years or more by the English Government, we have a higher rate of stress than most in the U.K. A lot of people in the rest of England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland get it better than we do.
@@tannhasuervonhohenstein3728 Didn't suggest anything of the sort Dylan, and to hear such history that has been experienced by countrymen in the North is indeed awful - in fact, it is reminiscent of how the Welsh have been treated for many hundreds of years, and in many cases still are. However, it would benefit you hugely if you were to argue and make your own case in a separate reply rather than posting an aggressive, patronising and somewhat insulting reply to my comment here. Rather than come across positively, as someone who has experience in a similar situation to the Welsh, it makes you come across as a bit of a tool. And as I write this I see you have edited your original comment, I can assure you Dylan, I and many of my Welsh countrymen are indeed not as blind as you originally (but edited out) suggested we are. Have a good one.
I really appreciate hearing that extra perspective of what things were like back then. Thank you for sharing!
I find it kinda amazing how the UK can find racism among all white people. I will never understand how, if you just say you are whatever the majority of whitesville is, they can't know otherwise. Racism based on clothes, the same God, or other things you can easily hide when everyone still looks about the same. So freakin weird! Perfect example, how Londoners handled the great fire of London in 1666: forget bothering to put out the fire, lets just blame people and since we are all white, we've gotta break it down into something else like divisions of Christianity or who was in London longest. I'm not from the UK, so to me, Welsh isn't any different from any other person that lives in the UK, unless someone gives me a reason. I hear a lot of people calling them Hobbits, but I guess the slang is lost on me even though I saw Lotr. Are we mad that they are short and have fuzzy feet? Or because they live in beautiful grassy hills that are so much more alluring than big smoggy cities? Classism at least makes sense, rich people don't want to work hard or be not rich so they have to constantly project onto the poor that the poor are actually the lazy ones. Best example I've seen on classism as an allegory: movie called The Platform on Netflix. It is so expensive and exhausting to be poor. A way of life the rich will never comprehend unless they too lose everything.
My grandfather helped in the rescue of the victims, he worked a 12 hour shift in another mine about 25 miles away then spent a whole day digging bodies out, God bless every soul lost and the families left without family members !!
my physics teacher spoke to us about it and said her father went with his spade to help. she said that it was the only time she had seen him cry
My dad was one of the helpers but he never spoke about it
I'm not surprised by that, honestly. It's similar to people who went through wars and never spoke about it.
bless him
Unfortunately, I'm welsh and this is far more information than I ever heard in school.
Right? I'm 19 and we had one lesson on it in year 6, it was in North Wales mind you
That's some shameful shit. We did two weeks on it in 1st year geography in Ireland. I'm 38 and my teacher would have been old enough to be around at the time of the accident. Maybe that's the difference.
instead we had to learn about English royal wank curriculum nonsense.
seriously had no idea until i was older just how much the UK has ruined other countries too...
I don’t even know much about Welsh history or even much of the language because I live in the south east and apparently Welsh isn’t important enough
@@capnskiddies Old teachers are some of the best to preserve culture, mine were mostly English people who basically saw Wales as a joke or novelty... had a History teacher who looked down upon the old Merthyr Tydfil working class because they were “dirty”
I grew up in South Wales and yes, this is the dirty secret no-one really wants to talk about. Shocking really as it always felt like it was swept under the rug. I never heard of this in school and it was only through my parents and my brother, who worked for the NCB as an electrician for a bit, that I found out about it. It's something everyone should learn about, especially in that part of the world.
I'm Welsh and I had somehow never heard about this tragedy in detail until now, makes my blood boil hearing the way my people were treated in the aftermath
Prove they were close to their children? That’s disgusting and inhuman.
Being Welsh, this is something I’ve heard a lot about while growing up. It’s ingrained in our culture now.
👏👏it is indeed 🏴
I've heard it all the way up in Gwynedd so yes I'm seconding that, but isn't it pronounced Avervan, or is thartt a North Welsh thing?
@@jacekatalakis8316 I’m from Anglesey. Are you a Welsh speaker? There is only one correct pronunciation, because it’s a welsh word, and the correct pronunciation is AB - AIR - VAN
I've heard it pronounced both ways, but that is more down to the fact said people didn't learn Welsh until secondary schol. To answer the am I a Welsh speaker, yes, hey you're not that far from me then
Single F - pronounced V
Double FF - pronounced F
This is horrifying, I can't imagine how scary it would have been for anyone involved. I've traveled through Aberfan a few times and had no idea of what had happened there, perhaps next time I will stop to pay my respects.
My grandfather was a regional manager for the national coal board in the 60's and 70's. He moved around the country for his job, living in several different places but he always said that when people found out who he worked for they were polite and asked a few questions like had he been into an actual mine, did he know how many sacks of coal were delivered each year in the whole country etc. That was before Aberfan.
After Aberfan, they used to ask him how he could continue to work for the coal board after they let those children die and tried to cover up their negligence. He decided it was easier to say he was a regional manager for a national company and to change the subject quickly.
@@joshuawalker5280 He worked for a company that was guilty of negligence.
As a parent I really can Sympathize with the horror and anguish these parents felt having to go identify their children who haven’t been on this earth very long!!!😭🙏🏽🙇🏾♀️
The NCB got a way with murder and the charity commission robbed the victim’s families!!!
😡
Pathetic response... what’s sad and amazing is how governments today are still getting away with much of the same. They’ve figured out if they can ensure citizens constantly bicker with each other over the issues in a similar fashion to how sports fans bicker about whose favorite teams/players are the better, we forget ALL government officials are usually the ones to blame... not just those from one “side”.
100% this. I always tell people their political beliefs are like sports fans. If a referee makes a bad call against your team, people throw a toddler tantrum. If the bad call is against the other team, they shrug their shoulders. But in the end we all get f*cked.
Facts
@@billbrasky6827 except politics is not as trivial as a sports game. Thats a grossly mismatched comparison. Politics isn't just a matter of what jersey color you wear.
Well said Damien.
@@elleofhearts8471 Tell me where I said that? Is english not your first languange? I was using an analogy.
For Americans - at 11:30, "about £900 today" would equal $1172 today (the day of this video’s released).
In those days, 1966, the average wage in the UK was about £19 a week, £900 per year, so the £50 offered in compensation was the equivalent of 2 and 1/2 weeks wages. I don’t know about miners, but they would have been close to or just below the average wage in those days.
@@clivehorridge Abhorrent isn't it? Almost beyond belief.
You can't even have a funeral with that money
I live in the village next to aberfan, the event haunts us all in the immediate and surrounding area still to this day. Every anniversary is a very unsettling day throughout the villages. It is not a subject that is spoken about in public very often, the memorial gardens and gravestones which can be seen very easily is reminder enough. A whole generation excluding a small amount of children, who were either late, sick or lucky enough to be pulled out of the disaster was wiped from the village of aberfan that morning. And all because of negligence and greed. Thank you for telling this event in a respectful manner.
I remember it happening. 5 years old at the time. Living just 20 miles away, it affected the whole area, we all felt the devastation. Aberfan is etched in the minds of all who were alive at the time.
What an incredible insult! Not only to be told your loss is only worth so much, then to tell you that if they were to give you more money, you wouldn't be able to "manage" it since you were, after all, just "working class"...
No need for coal to stoke the fires of the final destination of those disgusting, callous bureaucrats I'd wager.
Utterly reprehensible actions delivered by soulless government drones in turn led by upper class scumbags with no idea about the real world and much less able to care about those in it.
I was four when this happened, when I was seventeen I went to Wales and visited the graves, I will never forget that lost generation.
It's where I was born. Brilliant video. The village still has a "cloud" over it and many of the survivors still suffer from PTSD
i felt the grief in the air
Man, right when I heard "Primary School" I knew everything was about to get sad.
May the victims rest in peace.
*pieces
Ay at least they gave us some entertainment in the form of this video
What a useless comment lol hope it made you feel better Tom
@@gavinjohnson1901 I beg your pardon? Are you commenting on my comment, or the other replies?
@@thomasoates3003 bro you are the king of saying nothing lmao
Saw that episode in Netflix's "The Crown" that highlighted this disaster. It illustrated the gross negligence at every step and the horrifying moments leading up to and after the slide. What was cool was it was critical of the crowns slow response and journalists too. This video illuminated on points that the episode did not and really shows the terribleness of bureaucracy that slows actions and serves only to keep people in positions of power at the expense of the people.
@Nicky L well duh, no one should take a netflix show for more than what it is.
I researched this tragedy at length, for me the most heartbreaking thing(other than the deaths) was it was the last day of term at the school and was only a half day,many of the children begged their parents to let them stay home but they were told they had to go in, the parents did nothing wrong but imagine living with that💔 so sad😪
"The working class can't be trusted with this money."
Wow. Just wow.
In my primary school we were taught to recite a poem in Welsh about Aberfan to perform. They never did tell us the translation which I am glad about. We were all 7 at the time, the same age as many of the dead from this. I couldn’t imagine how other Welsh students from mining villages would have felt at the time, knowing that the government would do so little to help if it happened again.
I found out about this story a few years ago and it absolutely broke my heart. It also made me absolutely furious because this could’ve absolutely been prevented if the people responsible had actually listened and done something when it was brought up. May all those that died be at peace as well as their families.
Very much enjoy your channel and have since the beginning. Keep up the great work.
Nice
I don't know what's worse - so many of the victims being children, or the way the grieving parents were treated afterwards.
Amazing that no bereaved parents took matters into their own hands after being denied any justice whatsoever
I’m surprised I had to scroll down so far to finally see this comment. Seriously Nick!
Because that takes time and money, something working class people don't have.
That was really well and respectfully done. Thank you. I was a child when this occurred. I can remember the tips being removed from my own village. They were unbelievably huge and ugly as anyone from a Welsh Mining Village will tell you. The NCB had a lot to answer for.
There are still many dangerous ones left and one had a bad slip only couple of years ago.
As a 7 year old, my (very strange) mother took myself, my dad and my sister for a ‘day trip’ to Aberfan. I remember her distress and the feeling of guilt that we were ok, yet so many young children died. I think the memorials were there when we visited. A couple of additional points, I believe I read that Queen Elizabeth, upon her visit to lay a wreath, shed tears. She apparently felt that her words and efforts were inadequate in the face of such a terrible tragedy. My final point; we still live in a country where the poor are looked down upon. By blaming those in poverty, the majority of our MPs free themselves from the burden of responsibility. The aftermath of Covid, with labour shortages, reminds me of England after the plague. Workers are so in demand that wages and working conditions are being driven up. Long may it last!
My dad was there and helped with the rescue effort. He was permanently traumatised and still cannot talk about it at the age of 82. There were minimal emergency services there. Not like today. The rescue and cleanup was carried out by locals. My dad travelled from a nearby village to volunteer.
this whole thing is so outrageous. It was preventable, and it was dealt with horribly.
When done correctly... nothing was done correctly here. I have seen spoil tips here in the US, shored up with walls to contain and/or redirect them if they should shift. Which they haven’t done in 100+ years.
And in this area, we don’t actually have subterranean coal mines. The one mine I recall having a landslide was designed in such a way that the shift poured the slurry back into the mine! One guy in charge of a big, expensive piece of machinery didn’t notice he was moving, until he heard on his radio “Get out of there! The ground is sliding!” The only casualty of that... was the machine. The operator wasn’t injured.
Of course, this is when mines are run correctly...
I watched an old documentary about this and those in charge were absolute pricks.
With cases like this I sometimes wonder how no one takes justice in their own hands.
If my child had perished like this and the company people responsible hadnt been locked up for life, I would make sure of it myself that those guys would not see the end of it. The only thing Im not surprised though is the country in which this injustice happened.
*This channel produces great content.*
*It's so good, in fact, that it's one of a relatively few on RUclips where the urge to watch them all is absolute!*
That poor town. An entire traumatised population in the midst of grief.
It became known as the town who lost a generation as almost everyone in the town either lost a child or knew a neighbour who did.
It’s pronounced aber-van
in welsh:
f is pronounced v
ff is pronounced f
Learned something new today!
@@dieZauberfloete Found this quote online "The name means simply 'Mouth of the Fan', Fan being the name of the stream than runs down off the mountain at the south end of the village at the bottom of Bryntaf." A lot of Welsh words have multiple meanings, depending on the context, but typically mean 'by the mouth/by the river/river mouth' etc. Fan can also be a mutation of Ban, meaning peak or summit.
Thank you for the modern day picture with the spoils removed. So nice to see.
I'm really surprised that the Aberfan disaster doesn't get more attention; it has all the hallmarks of a tradegy the public would remember, most of the victims were school children, the death toll was high, there was scandal involved with the company that ran the spoil tip. I first heard of it when I was going through the Wikipedia list of UK disasters (I do stuff like that a lot). Maybe it's because it happened quite a while ago and ir happened in rural Wales (there is a hint of racism towards the Welsh amongst Britain, there just is)
I'm English but I adore the Welsh and the country, and I'm frustrated that I've never heard of this before with how high the death toll was. I wish more was done for the families of the victims at the very least
I’ve read about disasters all my life. It’s been in many disaster books I’ve read. I’m in Australia.
England dont give two shits about wales unless its to steal our water
@@saintniccage2818 curious about something. North or South?? Last time I was in Wales was around 20 years ago. ( My mother lived there). I'm not in the UK anymore.
I think people are losing sight of what the word “racism” means. The Welsh have a different cultural background to the English, and the Scottish, and the Irish, but they are not a different race.
I honestly feel infuriated after listening to this. The victims and families of victims were treated so horribly. I'm glad channels like this exist so that these kind of stories don't get forgotten to the wider world.
That is a horrendous story. 144 deaths, 116 who were children and Robens made a complete liar out of himself, he must have gone down in infamy.
I truly enjoy your channel. Not only do you provide an elaborately account of events, but always details on causes and conclusions. You provide these very professionally and factually, but still maintain a level of genuine respect for the deceased.
10:33 foward, it's hard to believe but United kingdom is tougher than nails, on their people, I read a story when the Titanic went down, all Stewart's on the ship who died, living family members were sent a bill for their uniforms. Unbelievable humanity !
It seems they passed that inhumanity on to us in America, as well.
I remember when the crown tv show showed us how Queen Elizabeth handled this situation. It was interesting.
@Nicky L, her visit was very documented.
Notice the commission that denied compensation had the crown as its logo?
@@theflanman420420, everything had a crown somewhere as its logo, especially in the 1960s. It was not a crown commission.
@@theflanman420420 ya that's how Commonwealth seals and logos are. Doesn't mean much anymore.
I never liked her till she said something on tv when I was having a really shit day. And I realised she was so much better than I thought. And she's smart , strong mentally and has such a good heart.
And you wouldn't expect her to behave any differently in a disaster .
Miners again treated like scum by their so called "Betters"
My oldest uncle was involved in the rescue effort as a 17 year old army cadet. He sadly has both Parkinson's and dementia now but in his more lucid days, whenever the disaster was mentioned, his demeanour would noticeably change and he would always excuse himself from the room.
Thumbs up isn’t the appropriate thing here
as a welsh person it’s interesting to watch someone who isn’t talk about this
I love the way you cover these events in a way that is memorable but still respectful. Could you please cover the Tangiwai Disaster? It’s not a well known case and I’d love to see what you’d do with the info
Seconded
Beautifully and respectfully narrated. Thank you!
This is the best channel ever because you include the before, during, and after of the incidents in great detail. Even though I knew of many of the stories in the top videos on this channel, I always learn new things and see lots of new stuff! Like, TIL what a spoil tip is.
My heart hurts for the families impacted by this disaster and the aftermath that followed. Absolutely atrocious
Good job! That Lord Robens bloke, his smile, I woulda knocked that smile off his shoulders! Such a creep.
A truly heartwrenching story. And like many commenters before me already said: it's absolutely terrible how the families of the victims were treated.
This was one of your more heartwrenching episodes, handled with class and dignity as always. When I saw the vid length was a bit longer than most others I knew there was a good reason why. I had never heard of this tragedy prioe but I'm not surprised.
I saw this on a different channel recently. This is a better version. Well done.